“Live each day so that at the end, there are no regrets, no unfinished business, nothing to create guilt later.”
- Barbara Karnes, Author of Gone From My Sight
Welcome
We are Willow and Christina, former family caregivers, end-of-life planners, and death doulas.
We guide individuals and families through transitions that often accompany aging, life-limiting illness, and end-of-life.
We’ve Been There.
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Practical support: getting affairs in order, care planning, sourcing free/low-cost resources, crisis management.
Advocacy: navigating healthcare and liaising with medical, legal, and financial professionals.
Family support: fostering constructive conversations around wants, needs, challenges, and opportunities
We understand — professionally and personally — some of the challenges and gifts of life’s later stages.
Our online classes and groups aim to help you and your loved ones find more balance and connection through the transitions.
You are not alone.
We’re glad we found your way to Friend For The End, a place for guidance, resources, and to talk about the tough stuff.
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Collaborators
Cheryl D. Danley
Cheryl specializes in standing alongside clients, family members and care partners through three end-of-life phases: (a) planning and life review, (b) conducting vigil and (c) grief and celebration of life. Certified as an Advance Care Planning Facilitator, Cheryl draws on both professional training and personal experience with her own family and friends. After her mother Laytha suffered a stroke, Cheryl was blessed to be referred to Asantewaa Gail Harris, an end-of-life doula who became a source of inspiration as Cheryl accompanied her mother Laytha through the complete cycle. When the end came, Laytha’s wishes were known and honored.
Cheryl has deep appreciation for family histories and legacies, and she is grateful to the Floral City Florida Heritage Council for capturing her mother’s story on video. Laytha’s final wishes were carried out at a Thanksgiving Celebration of Life by scattering her ashes over the Florida farmland where she was born.
Cheryl’s practice is also informed by living in a transnational intercultural blended family, and by her prior career in international development. During her tenure with Africare, a humanitarian organization that operated projects to improve the quality of life in Africa, Cheryl oversaw HIV/AIDS programs in Tanzania and South Africa. Through this work, she came to appreciate the role of palliative care, grief and celebration in processing death. Such a background uniquely positioned Cheryl to serve expatriates abroad in navigating services for loved ones in the States -- a virtual Doula to the Diaspora. At home in Florida, Cheryl works with Papa Pals, a service that assists seniors with companionship and household chores; volunteers with Deliver the Dream, an organization that provides therapeutic programs to families facing a serious illness, crisis, or disability, and participates in the multi-university PACT Study -- Preventing Alzheimer’s with Cognitive Training. In 2022, with Willow Baum, Cheryl co-hosted Tender Care Conversations, a support group for care partners. Cheryl is a member of the Empath Health/Suncoast Hospice volunteer team in Pinellas County.
Guidance for End of Life
Values
Empowering
To help you and your loved ones tap your innate wisdom and compassion. To respect and advance your goals.
Inclusive
To expand access to end-of-life resources for people of all identities, socioeconomic circumstance, and across generations.
Life-Affirming
To view the end as inspiration for all stages of life, to live better now with clearer intention.
